Chapter 6: The Secret His Father Buried
James had spent eight years believing his father died with his secrets buried alongside him.
Thomas Cole had been a difficult man. Brilliant, demanding, and often absent, he had built a successful medical technology company before retiring abruptly at fifty-six.
He rarely discussed his work at home.
He never explained why he had destroyed years of correspondence before his death.
And whenever James asked about the old family photographs, Thomas would change the subject.
James had assumed his father simply preferred privacy.
Now his signature sat on a document involving a secret fertility arrangement, an unknown biological father, and two newborn children.
“That's impossible,” James whispered.
Emily pulled up the contract details.
“The signature is dated nine years ago. The original agreement predates your marriage, the clinic procedure, and even your relationship with Victoria.””
“My father couldn't have known her.””
“Maybe he didn't.””
James looked at her.
“What does that mean?””
Emily pointed to a clause halfway down the page.
“Read this.””
The clause described an arrangement between Thomas Cole and a private research foundation. It referenced a genetic donor whose identity was to remain confidential and a future child whose legal parentage would be concealed.
James read it twice.
Then he noticed the name of the foundation.
*Cole Biomedical Trust.*
His father's company.
James stepped away from the desk.
“No.””
Emily said nothing.
“My father ran a medical technology business. He didn't run a fertility clinic.””
“He may not have run the clinic,” Emily replied.
“But he appears to have funded the program.””
Victoria sat down heavily in the leather chair.
“I didn't know about this document.””
James turned toward her.
“You knew about the agreement involving the twins.””
“I knew about the agreement Dr. Shaw gave me. I never saw your father's name.””
“Then why did you react when Emily showed us the photograph?””
Victoria's face tightened.
“Because I recognized the room.””
James looked back at the screen.
The photograph showed Danielle Reed in a hospital bed. Behind her was a pale green wall, a narrow window, and a distinctive brass clock.
He had seen that clock before.
Not at a hospital.
At his father's private research facility.
The facility had closed shortly before Thomas's death. James had visited it only once as a teenager, when his father took him to see a laboratory filled with machines James didn't understand.
He remembered the clock because it had been broken, permanently frozen at 3:17.
In Danielle's photograph, the hands showed the same time.
“Where was this taken?”” James asked.
Emily zoomed in on the image.
“There's no location data. But the wall markings match the old Cole facility.””
James stared at the screen.
“My father had a medical research lab?””
“Apparently.””
“And you never told me?””
Emily looked wounded.
“I didn't know until I found the files.””
James dragged a hand over his face.
His father had been dead for eight years. There was no one left to interrogate, no one who could explain why he had signed the agreement or what he had intended to hide.
Except perhaps one person.
“Dr. Shaw,” James said.
Emily nodded.
“He's the link between the original agreement and Victoria's procedure.””
James grabbed his phone.
“I'll call him.””
“No,” Emily said sharply.
“He'll know you're onto him.””
“Then what do you suggest? Sit here while somebody threatens to take my children?””
Emily looked at Victoria.
“Ask your wife where the babies are.””
Victoria stood abruptly.
“I told you. I don't know.””
James approached her.
“You heard the recording. Someone is coming for our children. You know more than you're admitting.””
Victoria backed away.
“James, please.””
“Tell me what happened at the clinic.””
She shook her head.
“Tell me!””
Victoria looked toward the hallway, as if searching for an escape.
Then she spoke.
“The day before the twins were born, Dr. Shaw called me into his office. He told me the arrangement had changed. The family who had originally agreed to take one child had withdrawn.””
“Why?””
“He wouldn't say.””
“What did he want you to do?””
“He told me to choose which baby would stay with me.””
James stared at her.
“You're telling me someone expected you to choose between our children?””
Victoria began to cry.
“I refused.””
“What happened next?””
“He said the decision would be made without me.””
Emily leaned forward.
“By whom?””
Victoria shook her head.
“I don't know. He said the person funding the program had the final authority.””
James felt his hands curl into fists.
“And you still brought the babies home?””
“Yes.””
“Knowing someone could come for them?””
“I thought I could protect them.””
“By locking my sister in a room?””
Victoria lowered her eyes.
“I thought Emily would expose everything before I could fix it.””
James let out a disbelieving laugh.
“You weren't protecting us. You were protecting yourself.””
Victoria didn't argue.
For the first time, she seemed to understand that the explanation she had rehearsed for herself over months would not save her.
Emily closed the contract and opened another file.
“There's a recording from the original research facility. It was made eight years ago, a few days before your father died.””
James moved beside her.
The file was labeled *T. COLE — PERSONAL STATEMENT*.
He pressed play.
Static crackled through the computer speakers.
Then his father's voice emerged.
“I'm recording this because I no longer trust the people managing the project. They have gone beyond the original research agreement. What began as a genetic compatibility study has become a private child-placement operation.””
James stopped breathing.
His father continued.
“I approved the early research because I believed it would help families affected by inherited disease. I was told all donors would remain anonymous and all children would be placed through legal channels. I now know those assurances were false.””
Emily covered her mouth.
The recording continued.
“Dr. Adrian Shaw has been falsifying records. He has accepted money from private clients who believe they can purchase access to specific genetic profiles. I have ordered the project terminated.””
A pause.
Then his father's voice grew quieter.
“If anything happens to me, the original files must be delivered to the authorities. My son, James, must not be involved. He knows nothing about the program, and I intend to keep it that way.””
James stared at the computer.
For a fleeting moment, he was sixteen again, standing in his father's office and begging for an explanation about why the company had been sold.
Thomas had looked at him then with an expression James had never understood.
Fear.
The recording ended.
James sat down.
“My father knew.””
Emily nodded slowly.
“He knew what they were doing.””
“And he tried to stop them.””
Victoria looked up.
“He was going to destroy the program. Dr. Shaw told me that.””
James turned toward her.
“When?””
“After the twins were born. He said Thomas Cole had hidden evidence that could ruin everyone involved.””
“Where is that evidence?””
“I don't know.””
Emily stared at her.
“Think.””
Victoria closed her eyes.
“He mentioned a safe. A private safe that belonged to your father. He said the original records were hidden somewhere nobody would think to look.””
James remembered the old family house.
His father's study.
The heavy oak desk.
The locked cabinet that had remained untouched since the funeral.
He stood abruptly.
“We need to go to my father's house.””
Emily pushed herself out of the chair.
“Wait. There's something else.””
She opened a final document.
It was a scanned page from a medical file, dated three days before the twins' birth.
At the top was James's full name.
Below it were several lines of genetic test results.
Emily stared at the screen.
“James, these results say you were tested without your knowledge.””
He moved closer.
“What does that mean?””
She pointed to the conclusion.
*PATERNITY EXCLUSION: SUBJECT DOES NOT MATCH EITHER FETAL PROFILE.*
James felt the air leave his lungs.
He read the sentence again.
Then he looked at Victoria.
“Are these real?””
She covered her face.
“I don't know.””
“You don't know?””
“I never saw that report!””
“Then why did you hide the agreement?””
“Because I was afraid of what it might mean!””
James staggered backward, knocking against the desk.
His father had funded a secret research program.
Victoria had entered that program before their marriage.
Dr. Shaw had arranged a fertility procedure under false pretenses.
And now a genetic report claimed that neither of the children James had raised as his own carried his biological signature.
He looked at the photograph of Danielle Reed.
Then at his father's signature.
Then at Victoria.
“Who is their father?””
Victoria whispered something.
“What?””
She lowered her hands.
“The man in the recording.””
“Who is he?””
“I never met him. But Dr. Shaw called him the original donor.””
“What's his name?””
Victoria's lips trembled.
“Thomas Cole.””
James went completely still.
His father had died eight years before the twins were conceived.
Emily looked from the report to Victoria.
“That doesn't make sense.””
Victoria shook her head desperately.
“I know how it sounds. But Dr. Shaw told me Thomas's genetic material had been preserved. He said the program used samples collected during the original research.””
James couldn't speak.
His father had supposedly been dead for years.
Yet his genetic material had been used to create the children now sleeping in their house.
A sound came from the computer.
An incoming file had appeared in the folder.
Neither James nor Emily had opened it.
Its title was simple.
*READ BEFORE MIDNIGHT.*
James clicked it.
A video appeared, showing a dark room and a man seated behind a desk.
Dr. Adrian Shaw leaned toward the camera.
“If James Cole is watching this, then Victoria has failed to keep the arrangement intact.””
He adjusted his glasses.
“James, your father did not die of natural causes.””
Victoria gasped.
The doctor continued.
“He was murdered because he discovered what we intended to do with his genetic material.””
James felt his fingers go numb.
Dr. Shaw looked directly into the camera.
“And before you ask, no, your twins are not the only children involved.””
He paused.
“Your father left behind another son. A biological son who was raised under a different name.””
The video flickered.
Dr. Shaw leaned closer.
“James, if you want to save your children, you must find your brother before the people who killed your father find him first.””
The screen went black.
For several seconds, nobody moved.
Then Emily whispered the question that made James's entire world collapse.
“If your father was murdered eight years ago, who signed the original agreement three years after his death?””
James stared at the screen.
The answer was hidden in the final frame of the video.
A signature.
A name.
May you like
And a date.
The signature belonged to James Cole himself.
